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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Romney's Foot in Mouth Disease ... Do Politicians Mean Most of What They Say? ... Let's Hope Not

I don't know Mitt Romney nor do I know Barack Obama either.

Therefore, while I'm sure they often don't mean what they say in public, I can't possibly know whether they always mean what they say in private (but caught on tape and later widely publicized by their opponents). Today we'll focus on Romney's "private" comments about the 47% of the voters who he said won't vote for him due to their government dependency.

In that regard,What Romney Might Have Said, the subject of a somewhat tongue-in-cheek WSJ editorial today, is definitely worth taking the time to read. So here we go:

"Mitt Romney has been taking a beating for his remarks, taped at a May
fundraiser, that 47% of Americans would automatically vote for
President Obama because they are "dependent" on government. We could
pile on, but instead we can report that we've been leaked pages of draft
remarks that Mr. Romney might have delivered on the same subject but
curiously didn't. Maybe he'll deliver them some time before Election Day:

"One tragedy of the Obama Presidency is how
many more Americans have become dependent on the government. I know it's
not their fault. Most want to be self-sufficient, to provide for their
families, but they can't because there aren't enough jobs.

"That's why 46 million Americans are on food stamps now, compared to
30 million in 2008. That's why 10.6 million were on Social Security
disability in 2011 compared to 9.3 million three years earlier. That's
why 40% of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more,
and the smallest share of the U.S. population is looking for work than
at any time since 1981.

"This is a national scandal. Not because those fellow Americans are
free-loaders, but because they aren't able to get a good job that pays
enough to be self-sufficient and lets them fulfill their human
potential.
"I want Americans to be less dependent
on government not because it costs too much. We will always help
Americans who need our help. I want Americans to be independent so they
can realize the pride of accomplishment and the dignity of work and
contribute their God-given talents to build a better country.

"I think the success of a Presidency should be measured by how many fewer people need food stamps, how many fewer
need disability, not how many more people are added to the rolls. I
don't want to take food stamps away from Americans in need. I want fewer
Americans to need food stamps.

"Sometimes I wonder if President Obama shares that view. He and his
economists keep saying that food stamps and unemployment benefits are a
form of 'stimulus.' Well, we've sure had a lot of that kind of stimulus,
and all we have to show for it are more people on food stamps and more
people on welfare and more people looking for work. I think a real
stimulus is a job, and I intend to help Americans create more of them.

"You've probably also heard some
people—some even in my own party—divide Americans between 'makers' and
'takers.' As if half the country wants to live off the other half. I've
never believed that. That's no different from the kind of divisive
politics that the President practices when he pits the wealthy against
everyone else.

"We want a society in which one person's success lifts everyone else.
The job of government is to create the incentives and opportunity so everyone
can become a maker. But too often government wants to take more from
Americans so it can make more Americans dependent on government. That's
when we lose our way, and too many Americans lose hope that they can
work and prosper.

"It's the same with our broken tax policy. You may have heard some
people say that about half the American people pay no income tax. That's
true. But I know millions of those people do pay Social Security taxes,
which are a tax on work. They're making their contribution to our
government, and I don't want to—and will not—raise their taxes.
"In fact, I want to reduce the tax on
work by repealing ObamaCare, which will force employers to pay a tax if
they don't offer health insurance. That means they'll hire fewer
workers, as many companies are already doing.

"But I don't want to stop there. I also want to fix our tax code so
everyone plays by the same rules, and that includes the richest and most
powerful. You know, the President seems to say every day that
'millionaires and billionaires' should pay higher tax rates.

"But what he doesn't say is that if you raise tax rates, those
millionaires and billionaires will hire lawyers and lobbyists to avoid
those rates, to exploit loopholes and tax shelters, or to get special
favors. Like Solyndra did. The government will get less revenue, and
that means the middle class will end up paying more. The President won't
tell you that either. . . .
We have the most complicated tax code
with some of the highest tax rates in the world and yet it doesn't raise
the revenue we need to fund the government.

"We need tax reform to spur faster growth and to make American
workers more competitive. But we also need reform to make the tax code
fairer, and less open to exploitation by the rich and powerful who have
friends in Washington.""

Summing Up If Romney meant that it's the makers versus the takers in America, I disagree with him. Americans most assuredly would prefer to be makers and not takers.In my view, the idea of American exceptionalism is real. As free Americans we truly want to make our own way.Further, I also remain totally convinced that the vast majority of us want to help our fellow Americans who need help.Unfortunately, I'm totally persuaded that far too many of us don't understand the basic economic facts of life, and that this group may very well include "progressives" and Keynesians like President Obama as well.The more crap we hear about the benefits of (1) more "stimulus" spending, (2) creating more jobs in the public sector in order to jump start the economy, (3) more government "investments" in Solyndra type cases, ethanol, wind and solar, and (4) even prohibiting energy independence efforts such as the Keystone pipeline's construction, the more I want to scream.In the end, however, I always come back to a lifelong belief in the basic decency, common sense and middle class values of my fellow Americans. Then I quit worrying about what the politicians are saying and begin to feel better.If Romney really believes what he actually said about our fellow Americans' desire for government dependency, he's not qualified to be our president. And if President Obama really believes much of the stuff he says as well, he's not qualified either.

That said, they're both smart people who like trained seals apparently will say and do just about anything to win the election this November.That I don't like, for an absolute certainty, but in a certain kind of way, it makes me feel better when I hear them say the crap they say. They can't possibly mean it. Or can they?Thanks. Bob.